5 thoughts on “Music Listening Devices, Josh White”
Josh,
Really interesting start describing Shellac records as they are related to the vinyl industry that dominated the music industry in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. That is undoubtedly a fact that not many people know about. Your assessment of vinyl is spot on. Because it was considered to be the very first high quality music listening device, it is still popular today. Heck, many people still prefer it to the CD or buying a song off iTunes. I liked the transition from the vinyl to the Sony Walkman, which you note fundamentally changed how society listened to music. You set the scene well by providing background information as to why two Japanese inventors decided to create such a device. As you mentioned in class, I love the class connection when you describe Morita’s decision to remove the recording function in the Walkman because he feared that its addition would ultimately dilute the device’s functionality and purpose. As a result, his decision to “give the device less functionality” as a means of simplicity which directly led to the Walkman’s popularity. I would have liked to see a connection to Apple’s foundation of simplicity as a means of popularizing what were traditionally thought of as only “expert” products. Good discussion on the CD and the revolutionary visions of Apple. Overall, job well done. Just one last recommendation: I encourage you to speak with slightly more conviction so as to draw the listener in and get them engaged. It was not a huge issue just something to consider for similar future projects.
I like how you at first talk about how the Shellac record transformed after World War II when the Japanese became the main producers of the product thus the transition to vinyl – great example of technology being more of a socio-technical system. And that shift from the Beatles and success of vinyl to the walkman’s success of the emphasis of simplicity attributing to the walkman’s success is something that we have certainly seen before – especially with Apple which I believe is a great foreshadow to the predictable success of some of the music products you later discuss. For example, you next product that you discuss was the compact disc and what attributed to the success of that product in the 90’s was similarly that it was cheap, thin, and easy to use. Although you did not explicitly state about how that you tied together the class concept of technologies being all interconnected systems and ideas building off each other in different ways, the way you describes the mp3 files success in parallel to the CD success illustrates this very idea. Also, your discussion of Apple being unique in the way in organized music and being the first company to provide music and music listening devices puts a great modern day understanding of this bigger picture that you greatly portrayed.
In Josh’s presentation, he detailed the history of music listening devices, specifically how over the past one hundred years the way in which we listen to music has changed just as rapidly as any other technology. Josh was able to incorporate the current context of society and how it influenced the development of the record, such as how during World War II record production had to be altered due to Japanese control over islands in the pacific where the materials to make records were located (and no longer accessible). Because of a forced transition from one raw material to another due to factors out of control of musical technology, it caused the record to be made with vinyl, a more efficient material that allowed for a whole album to be stored on a single record. After detailing the specific developments that led to the constant innovation of music listening devices, he was able to detail how the innovation of music devices can be characterized by the constant desire to make the devices more efficient, a theme that was common throughout the 20th century.
Josh, I really enjoyed your presentation on the evolution of music. All the listening devices you included demonstrated how these devices revolutionized the way people listened to music. It definitely shows how society sways to where technology leads. You incorporate important details that demonstrate how these technologies pushed for further technologies to evolve, like the iPod for example. Although you focus specifically on 20th-century listening devices, I think it would have been appropriate to include Edison’s phonograph and phonograph cylinder since it was one of the first known recording devices in the 19th-century. By using this example, it would have shown an earlier push for more technological innovation and push for a wider variety of music as well give a great transition to shellac and vinyl records. Overall, I thought you did a fantastic job and pick an interesting final project topic.
A really cool topic, the way we listen to music really has changed just as rapidly as any of our other technologies in the past 100 years. I didn’t know records were first made it the 20s and it was interesting how vinyl became the material of choice after Japan went through its imperial phase and then World War 2. This technological change is so applicable to our generation and our parents because we were right in the middle of cd’s growing popularity and nowadays no one ever buys cd. Plus I can’t count the number of time my parents have mentioned their vinyl collections and how great it is. It seems that records are making a comeback, maybe it has something to do with the rise in hipsters who knows. Something interesting that you did was get specific with certain technologies and companies which I think was helpful. Talking about the early walkmans and why they were built the way they did help to put the technology into its time frame. Good project, it was still a little quiet but I can’t think of any other bad parts.
Josh,
Really interesting start describing Shellac records as they are related to the vinyl industry that dominated the music industry in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. That is undoubtedly a fact that not many people know about. Your assessment of vinyl is spot on. Because it was considered to be the very first high quality music listening device, it is still popular today. Heck, many people still prefer it to the CD or buying a song off iTunes. I liked the transition from the vinyl to the Sony Walkman, which you note fundamentally changed how society listened to music. You set the scene well by providing background information as to why two Japanese inventors decided to create such a device. As you mentioned in class, I love the class connection when you describe Morita’s decision to remove the recording function in the Walkman because he feared that its addition would ultimately dilute the device’s functionality and purpose. As a result, his decision to “give the device less functionality” as a means of simplicity which directly led to the Walkman’s popularity. I would have liked to see a connection to Apple’s foundation of simplicity as a means of popularizing what were traditionally thought of as only “expert” products. Good discussion on the CD and the revolutionary visions of Apple. Overall, job well done. Just one last recommendation: I encourage you to speak with slightly more conviction so as to draw the listener in and get them engaged. It was not a huge issue just something to consider for similar future projects.
I like how you at first talk about how the Shellac record transformed after World War II when the Japanese became the main producers of the product thus the transition to vinyl – great example of technology being more of a socio-technical system. And that shift from the Beatles and success of vinyl to the walkman’s success of the emphasis of simplicity attributing to the walkman’s success is something that we have certainly seen before – especially with Apple which I believe is a great foreshadow to the predictable success of some of the music products you later discuss. For example, you next product that you discuss was the compact disc and what attributed to the success of that product in the 90’s was similarly that it was cheap, thin, and easy to use. Although you did not explicitly state about how that you tied together the class concept of technologies being all interconnected systems and ideas building off each other in different ways, the way you describes the mp3 files success in parallel to the CD success illustrates this very idea. Also, your discussion of Apple being unique in the way in organized music and being the first company to provide music and music listening devices puts a great modern day understanding of this bigger picture that you greatly portrayed.
In Josh’s presentation, he detailed the history of music listening devices, specifically how over the past one hundred years the way in which we listen to music has changed just as rapidly as any other technology. Josh was able to incorporate the current context of society and how it influenced the development of the record, such as how during World War II record production had to be altered due to Japanese control over islands in the pacific where the materials to make records were located (and no longer accessible). Because of a forced transition from one raw material to another due to factors out of control of musical technology, it caused the record to be made with vinyl, a more efficient material that allowed for a whole album to be stored on a single record. After detailing the specific developments that led to the constant innovation of music listening devices, he was able to detail how the innovation of music devices can be characterized by the constant desire to make the devices more efficient, a theme that was common throughout the 20th century.
Josh, I really enjoyed your presentation on the evolution of music. All the listening devices you included demonstrated how these devices revolutionized the way people listened to music. It definitely shows how society sways to where technology leads. You incorporate important details that demonstrate how these technologies pushed for further technologies to evolve, like the iPod for example. Although you focus specifically on 20th-century listening devices, I think it would have been appropriate to include Edison’s phonograph and phonograph cylinder since it was one of the first known recording devices in the 19th-century. By using this example, it would have shown an earlier push for more technological innovation and push for a wider variety of music as well give a great transition to shellac and vinyl records. Overall, I thought you did a fantastic job and pick an interesting final project topic.
A really cool topic, the way we listen to music really has changed just as rapidly as any of our other technologies in the past 100 years. I didn’t know records were first made it the 20s and it was interesting how vinyl became the material of choice after Japan went through its imperial phase and then World War 2. This technological change is so applicable to our generation and our parents because we were right in the middle of cd’s growing popularity and nowadays no one ever buys cd. Plus I can’t count the number of time my parents have mentioned their vinyl collections and how great it is. It seems that records are making a comeback, maybe it has something to do with the rise in hipsters who knows. Something interesting that you did was get specific with certain technologies and companies which I think was helpful. Talking about the early walkmans and why they were built the way they did help to put the technology into its time frame. Good project, it was still a little quiet but I can’t think of any other bad parts.